Birth Control by Inbreeding:
Bear in mind that this blog is about research, not advice. I recently looked at some data put together by Robin Fox of Rutgers University. He was looking at cousin marriages. I was frankly astonished at how frequent they have been historically. He suggests that 80% of marriages historically have been between second cousins or closer.
According to the Iceland study data, that should have produced a degree of inbreeding depression in the second generation. Well, that’s hardly a bad thing, is it? I mean populations can indeed outgrow their resources. Inbreeding to that extent would stabilize the population.
And like a number of other methods of birth control it could readily be reversed; it would only take a little longer to do it. If the population is getting too big, you just tighten up that gene pool a little. If it is too small, relax it a little. Relax it completely and you get a baby boon that is very destabilizing followed by a population crash that is even worse. That seems to be the strategy we are now embarked on.
The next time I get the response, “There are too many babies in the world,” I know what I am going to say: “All right. Control them by inbreeding.” No, I’ll have to phrase it differently. No advice, remember?
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